WFH with children

[Annie232]

On many threads I hear women pop up and mention how they WFH x number of days and so don't need childcare on x number of days. Incidentally, within my NCT group on discussions on return to work a few of the women have said similar and that they plan to WFH 1/2 days a week and therefore save on childcare. Is this a thing now?

Well I’ve been promoted very recently and worked from home with 2 of mine . Youngest is almost 1 .

I literally don’t know anyone who does this and has a serious job. I work at a senior level in the city for context.

Glad to see someone that manages very similar to us . It probably sounds crazy to others but it worked so well

Anyone can technically have a job and also be at home with a baby on their work days.

Doesnt mean you’re doing a good, or even half good, job at work (impossible) and doesn’t mean you’re doing well at parenting either (babies shouldn’t be ignored for large parts of the day.

My workplace has a clause in our WFH allowance, where it clearly states you cannot do WFH on days where you will have children under 12 requiring care. It was suspended during the lockdowns, when schools were closed, but is back in place now. Maybe you should check that you don’t have one like that, before you think about plans. Seems like it would be impossible to work reliably at home with a small child (but I’ve never done it, so could be wrong…)

TBH it just feels like people in this routine are piss takers and ‘managing’ because their boss has no idea they’re skiving half the time.

Not possible at all.
You end up ignoring the baby/toddler, completely setting them up for speech delay and bad sleeping patterns from lack of stimulation.
Or end up getting disciplinary for not being committed to your job and bad work ethic. The hours your employer pays you for belong to them, not to you to do as you wish. Any director would be furious if they found out this was going on and you would be first out in a recession staff cull.

It is noticed and these will be the first employees to be made redundant when businesses have to cut staff in a recession. They will keep the most efficient staff and lose the piss-taking hours fakers. OP just needs to figure out if her specific employer will notice is she only operates at 30-50% or if she can "get away with it", as she's clearly already made her mind up.

I highly doubt they are actually doing all the baking/soft play etc in their lunch hour. They may have tried it for a week but they'd be burnt out keeping this up and still doing their job properly.
This is prob just the story they tell their friends to justify themselves and kids actually become understimulated undersocialised & underdeveloped being looked after by peppa pig while they save substantial cash. Dreading seeing how this next generation turn out

It is entirely dependent on the job you have. I have had jobs in the past where there are not enough hours in the day to do it all, and you're swamped from Monday to Friday. Other jobs have clearly hired someone to keep headcount and funding with hardly any work.

I have a full time hybrid role where i work around 3-4 hours a day on a busy day.

I'm 100% not going to put my hand up and say i can do more because there's no additional pay attached to it. I surpass targets and thats all management need to know.

They dont need to know that actually i spent a lot of the day watching films and reading and playing xbox. At the moment also looking for a part time contract WFH role as i have capacity to do more.

What no one here is mentioning is that some people simply work faster than others. You see it everyday. I am given the same amount of projects as my predecessor did and my targets are much higher than his ever were. I have deadlines etc. But it's easily managed.

DS has childcare arrangements full time. The only reason i haven't reduced his days is because i should really be available for last minute calls. Not because i dont have time.

and to quote you I'm measured on output not hours
From the description of your routine, it sounds like the issue is your boss expect very little of you. If you can do all what is expected in 2h or so a day, what could you produce in 8h! Low expectation of productivity indeed makes it easy but most reasonable companies expect the equivalent of what you can do in FT hours if your contract and pay is for FT hours.

My predecessor in my current job tried this with a 2yo. He got fired.

It's a terrible, awful, no good idea which will make both you and your child miserable, and runs a serious risk of losing you your job. But hey, once you're unemployed, you can spend all day every day with your baby.

This thread has issue started to me there are a lot of poorly defined job roles and bad managers out there.

if people work in the private sector and can get a job with full time pay that involves only 2 3 hours work then fill your boots if you are comfortable coasting like that.

if anyone is discriminated a public sector role then there are ethical issues around this and you should really speak up.

I am actually now thinking of the French civil servant who wrote the book about people doing a few hours work a week!! Perhaps some in this thread are her former colleagues😂😂

amp.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/23/french-civil-servant-bored-workforce

Absolutley, there appears to be a lot of sh*t managers out there who dont know what their staff are up to! Feel sorry for the small business owners like my DH trying to make things work & who are just clueless to this.

And anyone doing this and salaries are being paid for by the taxpayer/council fees, then shame on you and your department.

Your contractually employed hours do not belong to you, they belong to your employer. This is what I was taught and what I teach my children.
Where has all the work ethic gone?

What a strange reply. No, they’re not lying to me, this is one of my best friends.

They do an activity outside the house in the morning like playgroup/soft play/park and then an activity in the house in the afternoon like painting or baking which they sort out everything needed the night before. Clothes are also laid out the previous day and meals are batch cooked so only need warming up. In between the child plays with toys or outside and watches tv for an hour with their older sibling when they’re home from school. They do some more work once the other parent is home or the kids are in bed if needed. The oldest child does an activity one evening a week and they both do swimming on Saturday mornings.

They’re hardly ‘under stimulated, undersocialised & underdeveloped‘, but if that makes you feel better then you keep saying that. They just have very organised parents with jobs that allow them to do this.

I had no choice but to WFH with a toddler during lockdown and it was awful. I felt like I was either skiving off or not giving my toddler the attention he needed.

I ended up having to split my shifts and do 8-12 and 4-8 so my child had my attention in the middle part of the day, it wasn’t fair on him otherwise. I think 8 hours straight of mummy saying “I’ll be with you in a minute” is too much for you and them.

If your baby is under 6m you may get away with it for a while while they’re not very mobile/still napping, but after 12m it doesn’t work unfortunately, especially if your job involves answering the phone at all!

Is this your friends-in-nct-classes first DC? Sounds like it. Most employers will give you a formal warning and then, if you continue, sack you if you do this. Check your work wfh policies but it will probably specify you can't be caring for children. It is not safe for your child either if you are not fully present to care for them. Don't save money at the expense of your DC they are worth more than that.

It partly depends on what your job entails. There are elements of my job I can do anytime of day/night then other bits where I have to be present as much as I would be if I was in the office. I have previously juggled work demands and childcare during office hourse working daft hours but out of necessity due to childcare costs - I didn't do either job well!! They are both over 11 now so it's easy to work from home when they are here.

I do two mornings a week with my 3yo DD at home and it works really well for us. It allows me to work extra hours, she plays or has screen time for a while, then we go out afterwards and spend quality time together. I don't think we could sensibly do full days like that but it must depend entirely on the kid and the job. She does 3 full days at nursery, has me to herself 2 afternoons and has both parents around at the weekends.

Still employed three years later and have received a promotion and payrise based on my performance 🤷‍♀️ (granted it wasn't every day but it was regular)
It depends on the nature of the job, employers, the individuals ability to multitask etc...

I don’t really buy the multi tasking thing. Or that people who do this are just better at their jobs and more productive.

out of interest I assume you never have teams meetings? Just thinking though my day tomorrow. I have an informal team meeting at 9:30 then I am chairing a two hour meeting at 10am. I have another meeting at 2pm for 90 mins. I won’t be able to leave my computer between 9:30am and noon so while I might be an awesome multi tasked it is impossible to chair a meeting while caring for a baby. Arguably I could step away from the afternoon meeting - but it would be unprofessional.

does you job not require meetings or phone calls?

I agree. Selfish people who essentially steal from employers by looking after children when they should be working will ruin the flexible working for the rest of us.

I guess the cost of childcare forces people to do this.

I also agree. Nobody is properly working from home if they are also trying to look after a baby / toddler.